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HOCKEY;Rangers' Costly Loss Lifts Beukeboom's Price

The price might not have been right, but the cost would have been prohibitive. And so Neil Smith, the Rangers' president and general manager, swallowed hard and signed the hard-hitting defenseman Jeff Beukeboom yesterday to a lucrative, long-term contract that keeps Beukeboom in a Ranger uniform.

Beukeboom has agreed to a four-year contract worth a reported $8.5 million, a salary considerably higher than the Rangers had budgeted for Beukeboom. But the Rangers had lost forward Pat Verbeek to the free-agent market earlier in the week and would have suffered a serious blow to their defense had Beukeboom left, too. Verbeek signed with the Dallas Stars.

Beukeboom last year formed the nucleus of a strong Ranger defense that included Brian Leetch, Bruce Driver, Aleksandr Karpovtsev and Ulf Samuelsson. But the Rangers traded away a promising young defenseman, Mattias Norstrom, to the Los Angeles Kings in a late-season move and also lost the up-and-coming Barry Richter, who as a free agent chose to go to the Boston Bruins.

Meanwhile, Marty McSorley, whom the Rangers received in the multiplayer trade that sent Norstrom to Los Angeles, has been a disappointment. And the future of the veteran Kevin Lowe is uncertain, since he may opt to become an assistant coach. So, retaining Beukeboom became paramount for a team that wants to remain in the Stanley Cup hunt.

To keep Beukeboom, Smith had to outmaneuver his nemesis, Mike Keenan, the coach and general manager of the St. Louis Blues. Keenan reportedly had offered Beukeboom a three-year, $7.5 million package. Keenan coached Beukeboom in 1994, when the Rangers won the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1940.

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Had Beukeboom gone to the Blues, he would have joined several ex-Rangers who were part of that championship team. One of them is Brian Noonan, the right wing who Keenan plucked away from the Rangers during the last off season. Smith didn't want to lose another valuable player to Keenan, and he found a way not to.

Beukeboom, 31, was a Group 5 free agent and thus could have gone anywhere without compensation to the Rangers. For a player to be classified as Group 5, he must have played in the league for 10 seasons and in the final year of his contract received a salary below the league average.

Beukeboom came into the league during the 1986-87 season with the Edmonton Oilers. Last year, he played 82 games, scored 3 goals, assisted on 11 others and had a plus-minus rating of plus 19. A punishing defenseman who uses all of his 6-foot-5-inch, 230-pound frame, and has the scars on his face to prove it, he racked up 220 penalty minutes.

The Rangers still need someone to replace the scoring punch that was lost when Verbeek departed. The year's prize free agent, 35-year-old Wayne Gretzky, is still unsigned. To free salary space and possibly make a run at Gretzky, the Rangers might want to part with the 33-year-old McSorley, who has been plagued by injuries, will make $1.8 million next year and might still be attractive to teams believing he can help them attain a grittier mien.